Lightning Source and Ingram Spark cost increase

Posted on January 11, 2016 by moonbridgebooks

Those who have published with Lightning Source or Ingram Spark should have received an email notifying of cost increase in printing and in handling fee as of February 8. We can change the prices of our books, though, to adjust for this increase. If the price shows on the back cover (perhaps in the bar code?), for a limited time there’s no need to upload a new cover and pay that $40 cost—hurray! This is a good time to re-evaluate the list prices and discount percentages of our books.

Instead of raising the list price of Cherry Blossoms in Twilight to make up for the increased Lightning Source cost, I took advantage of this freebie moment (its price is in the bar code) to finally lower the list price from $12.95 to $9.95. This book, after all, is about ten years old. But, I also lowered the discount rate for book buyers from standard 55% to only 40%. My compensation per sale will be only 9 cents less. Most of my sales these days are for e-books through Kindle Direct, with some print copies sold mainly through Amazon (not book stores), so the 40% discount should not be an issue. What remains to be seen is whether Amazon will now notice this book is through LSI and not their CreateSpace and punish me by showing Cherry Blossoms is not in stock. That’s another reason I resisted changing the price for years. I decided not to change anything for my latest publication, Battlefield Doc: Memoir of a Korean War Combat Medic (Nov 2015).

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Lightning Source and Ingram Spark have publisher compensation calculators on their websites, so you can fiddle with your book list price and discount percentage to see what makes sense for you before submitting a change. For now, the calculators will figure compensation for both current pricing and the new pricing, so you can see the difference. These companies process pricing structure changes once a month with the following upcoming cut-off dates:

January 26 – for February start
February 22 – for March start

After February 22, if your book price is showing on the back cover or in the bar code, you will have to pay, as usual, to upload a new cover to make pricing changes. It can be the same cover, just with new price, or choose to have no price showing in the bar code.

See my website Resource page for more information about using Lightning Source/Ingram Spark.

Posted in publishing, Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

Grannie Annie kids tell WWII family stories

Posted on December 22, 2015 by moonbridgebooks

GrannieAnnie2The heirloom silver spoon that stopped a bullet, a kind woman who saved the enemy and found a husband, hiding from Germans in North Carolina, a beach full of oranges—these are some of the stories found in Echoes From World War II, the latest in The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration of books. Each year, Connie McIntyre and Fran Hamilton collect stories from around the world written by kids that capture moments in the time of their parents and grandparents’ lives. History, culture, laughter, tragedy, and inspiration are in the pages of these stories told in the honest, unaffected voices of the young. I’ve enjoyed a few of the Grannie Annie books, but this one is my favorite so far.

The stories in Echoes From World War II were featured in earlier Grannie Annie volumes, but Connie and Fran pulled them together as a special edition to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Grannie Annie. WWII has been a common theme since most of the kids’ grandparents or great-grandparents have lived through it. The stories tell of challenges and danger, lives saved and lost, lives re-gathered to go forward into a brave new future, and all from different perspectives and different countries. This is a learning experience for adults as well as kids. I think every classroom library should have an anthology or two of The Grannie Annie to encourage and empower the kids to write, but especially this one because it also teaches history. History is easy to remember when it is a story told on such a personal level. Stories make an impression.

Deadline for the round of stories for the next anthology of The Grannie Annie is February 1, 2016. Any interesting story, no special theme. Kids in grades 4-8 or homeschooled or international kids ages 9-14 can submit stories and even illustrations. Teachers can submit for their students. There is no cost! The story has to have happened before the child was born. See The Grannie Annie website for more information. During this holiday season when families gather together, think about asking the grandparents, great aunts and uncles, or elder friends to tell a few stories—real ones, not fairy tales. Maybe YOU will be the one telling stories. Let the family bonds strengthen!

Happy holidays!

Echoes From World War II is available for pre-order on The Grannie Annie website or through Amazon.

Posted in book talk, capturing memories, family gathering, history, holiday, honoring veterans, multicultural, relationship, storytelling, war stories, WWII | 2 Comments

Ingram Spark vs Amazon CreateSpace

Posted on November 30, 2015 by moonbridgebooks

I have just published Battlefield Doc: Memoirs of a Korean War Combat Medic using both Amazon CreateSpace and Ingram Spark, with the same ISBN. Why? Only because this book is historical and should be in libraries. Libraries would prefer to buy at wholesale price from Ingram, versus buying at list price (or other less favorable price) from Amazon. To better understand these publishing options, see my Resources page for articles on Ingram Spark, Amazon CreateSpace, and using both Spark and CreateSpace together.

For most books, using CreateSpace alone should be fine since most readers will be individuals buying through Amazon, and not libraries and especially not book stores nationwide. CreateSpace is easier to use than Ingram Spark. It asks for a lot of information, but you can start creating your book profile and save it to return later when you have more info. My book interior file uploaded and came back with notes about possible fixes required. I sent the notes to my book designer who thought nothing was amiss. I gave CreateSpace permission to “fix” the file as it saw fit. The online proof looked fine and I ordered a print copy proof to make sure all was well. It arrived quickly, about four business days later. The 250-page print proof cost $7.32, including shipping.

Ingram Spark also asked for a lot of information about the book. You can also start the profile, save, and come back to it. Spark found problems with a number of the photos in the book – the markings looked scary to me and I did not understand the meaning of the notes. I sent them to my book designer who again said nothing was amiss. I gave Spark permission to “fix” the file and the online proof looked fine. I ordered a print proof copy and it took a few days longer to arrive than the CreateSpace proof, as I remember. The print proof cost $9.77, including standard shipping. At this point, Spark also charged me the $49 for file setup. The fee would be waived later if I bought 50 copies of the book.

How did the print proofs compare? The blue sky on the cover of the Spark book has a gray tone to it, while the sky is lighter and brighter blue on the CreateSpace cover. The original cover file has a bright blue sky. My book designer liked the grayer (softer) tone and my husband liked the brighter sky. I think they both look good, just a little different. Greens and blues are more likely to come out looking a little different than you think, and in my opinion it’s hard to go wrong with blue shades while certain green shades can be unappealing, so beware. The box of 50 books I subsequently ordered from CreateSpace had a slightly grayer tone to the sky, but not as grayed as the Spark proof—all depends on the printing location and machine used, I guess.

The interior of the books were different, too. The Spark book print was sharp and dark, while the CreateSpace print was softer. Not a big issue, though. But, the (black and white) photos in the CreateSpace book came out darker while the Spark book photos were lighter. Some old photos actually looked better and clearer with Spark, but the one hand drawn illustration done in black pen came out too pale. It was scanned at 300 dpi, but should have been scanned at higher dpi to look good through Spark. The Liz Taylor postcard came out too dark with CreateSpace. Can’t win!

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So, if your book has photos, then it’s important to note that Spark images may come out lighter, at least with black and white images. This is good or bad depending on quality of the photos or drawings. Maybe scan at higher dpi for Spark. Blue tones on the cover can vary. And one more thing, the covers of CreateSpace books stay popped up a lot more than Spark books do once they have been opened wide by readers.

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So what did I do? I ordered boxes of books from CreateSpace because I needed them fast for a book signing, I liked the darker hand-drawn illustration, and the cost was less than ordering from Spark. But, libraries will be happy to order from Spark and may discover the book on their own because of the Ingram catalog listing ($12/title per year), I think the quality is a little better, and the book appears more professional thanks to wholesale discount and returnable status.

Battlefield Doc books

Box of CreateSpace books

 

By the way, the book signing went great! Still need more reviews on Amazon (and Goodreads), so if you have read the book, please leave an honest review.

Posted in publishing | 7 Comments